Advertisement
Published: January 3rd 2007
Edit Blog Post
La Paz from above
The first view of la paz. It has so many buildings in such a small place! Claire:
Since we are now such old hands at border crossings we strolled through the Peruvian-Bolivian border with ease and were soon on our way to La Paz. The first sight of the city was amazing… it just doesn’t look possible to fit that many buildings into such a small valley. The photos just don’t do it justice. Our hostel (the adventure brew) was pretty nice, we got a free beer for each night we stayed and free pancake breakfasts in the morning. Of course I couldn’t drink because of my antibiotics so Ross kindly helped me out and had my free beer too. I think he had a great time; the beer was 6.5%.
The hostel was organising a bit of a New Year bash so we signed up for that. We went out for some food with a friend of a friend (Claudia) who lives here in La Paz and I had a much needed gossip (Ross is definitely lacking in this department…), then we got ready and joined the party at the hostel. As you can imagine I had a great time, everyone hammered around me (including Ross) and me still not drinking. Still, the music was good
La Paz at night
The view from our NYE party. in bits and the fireworks at midnight were amazing. The hostel has a little garden veranda bit on the 4th floor that has views out over most of the city. Fireworks were going off everywhere and it was pretty. Then I had had enough of drunken gringos patting each other and rather grouchily headed for bed ridiculously early and ridiculously sober (but feeling almost normal again!).
On New Years Day we checked into the starting hotel for our tour and met our group (or some of it) to say hi and sort some stuff out. The group is 15 people this time but only 5, including us, turned upon the first day. The other 10 people are travelling together on another gap tour from Lima and got left at another hotel with no clue where we were. we're all together now and our group is very young and very australian.
Today we visited some (more!) ruins called Tiahuanaco and also the valley of the moon. Tiahuanaco was boring as our guide sucked but I found some thistles (!) and a cool catepillar so I was happy. The valley of the moon was amazing to see, lots of residual
La Paz at night with Ross
Ross posing in front of the cityscape. the photos just dont get across how beautiful la paz actually is at night stalegmites from the time when a lake covered most of Bolivia. Also there was a man playing pipes on top of a stalegmite. exciting stuff.
La Paz is actually growing on me a lot and now I think I quite like the city. It's just really busy all the time. One thing I haven't mentioned is the boot black boys that work on the city's streets. They dont like people to know who they are as they have to do what they see as a quite demeaning job so they wear ski masks and all black and all you can see is their eyes most of the time. They're a bit intimidating but I think they're kinda sad too. I've tried to subtlely get a photo of them through windows and the like but it hasnt happened and I get the feeling that if they cover their faces they wouldnt be up for up close photography. I did get some sneaky photos of some local market stall running women though in traditional Aymara garb (including bowler hat!).
Anyways, next we head south to Cochabamba.
Ross:
Several hours and several pointless passport checks later we finally entered what
NYE 2006
its early on and the bar was already running dangerously dry... we thought was just a small town. Not sure where we were, staring aimlessly out the window trying to find out what this place was as it didn’t fit any of the descriptions of La Paz that we knew. Realization finally dawned as we reached the edge of the plateau we had been travelling across. We were treated to the amazing sight of the mass urban sprawl of La Paz that infested the valley below us.
Had a bit of a wander down the street the first day we arrived after being totally fleeced for the taxi to the hostel, which was just round the corner from the bus station and less than 2 minutes walk. As Claire mentioned we got free beer from the hostel made in their microbrewery (the worlds highest apparently, no sure about this claim). It tasted and smelled like beetroot but it got the job done.
New Year at the adventure brew annex was pretty cool it’s slightly further down the road, converted from an old colonial mansion built into the side of the valley. Meaning you get a great view along the valley. Plenty of cheap beer and spirits kept me happy till the
NYE 2006 2
this is the little balcony we watched the fireworks from Bells and the fireworks started. Not the most spectacular display I’ve ever seen but the sheer volume of fireworks going off was dazzling, as just about every household along the valley set off their own small displays (don’t know how well this came out in the photos but it was an amazing sight). After the Bells Claire dragged me off back to the hostel (probably just as well as I was quite hammered and the bar seemed to be running dry alarmingly fast) where I promptly passed out.
Still struggling to get used to the altitude it’s not as bad as it was but still keep getting short of breath and gaspin for air now and again. And this is what really gets you. You think I’m up in the mountains plenty of cool clean air to gulp down but halfway through your supposed fresh draft of air your lungs register the half burnt diesel and exhaust fumes, that seem to plague the towns and cities of Peru and Bolivia, and you end up hacking and wheezing worse than before. Really need to pass some emission laws over here nothing worse than getting blasted with thick black exhaust every time
NYE 2006 3
Ross was determined to get more beer before they ran out a bus or truck goes by.
Met our tour group; at least those that turned up.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.117s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 15; qc: 82; dbt: 0.0781s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Dad
non-member comment
fun
pictures and blog story fab. looks as though you are both still having fun and enjoying in spite of the inca's revenge type illness like Ross's brimmed hat Geckos feature massively in New Scientist this week. - watch out for their teeth and don't let them lickyou x ;-)